Mitsubishi to increase production of i-MiEV electric city car

Mitsubishi has raised its production targets for its i-MiEV city car from 2,000 vehicles a year to 10,000, and has increased the production of its batteries to allow this.

Mitsubishi has raised its output target for the electric i-MiEV in response to higher demand expectations based upon a positive response from the UK and other European markets.

Mitsubishi has prioritised the development of the i-MiEV for introduction to the Japanese domestic market in 2009 and has confirmed its plans for introduction to Europe in 2010.

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK has requested that a proportion of the first 2,000 Right Hand Drive units be allocated to the UK to support a launch in London in 2009.

A brand new plant that supplies the large capacity high performance lithium-ion batteries is scheduled to be ready for next April’s start of production of the i-MiEV all-electric 5-door city car. The plant will initially produce 1 million palm-size lithium-ion cells a year, which is enough to power 10,000 vehicles. An additional investment of more than 10 billion yen is planned by 2012 to add a second plant and doubling output to cope with demand.

MMC’s electric vehicle strategy is to become one of the leading car manufacturers of electric vehicles in the world.